The company not only has filled its 205,000-square-foot facility at 601 E. Mercury Drive, but it's making use of 20,000 square feet elsewhere in the Apollo industrial subdivision for its soft goods.

About 75 percent of Litania's products are made in Champaign, Hodge said.

The other 25 percent are made outside the U.S., primarily in China, Taiwan and India.

That 75-25 ratio has remained pretty much the same the last 20 years, Hodge said.

In some cases, products once made abroad have returned to the United States. A recent example is Porter's portable basketball backstops.

Litania concluded it could make them more profitably in the U.S. One of the reasons: The cost of shipping containers has almost doubled the past couple years due to high demand for containers, Hodge said.

Ten to 15 percent of the Litania's overall sales come from outside the U.S., he added.

For now, Hodge said, Litania is in a "slow-growth mode." Even if the company doesn't have an immediate job opening, it's always interested in hearing from people with welding and fabrication experience, he said.

Hodge said Porter Custom is among three major suppliers to the school gymnasium market, the others being Draper Inc. and Performance Sports Systems.

In recent years, two other players in the market have either stopped selling products or been absorbed by others, he said.

Litania is Latin for "list of prayers," Hodge said.

Hodge said prayer is part of his life, and he believes that's why both Gill and Porter survived what once were severe financial problems.

"Without God's intervention at Gill and now at Porter, there are no companies," Hodge states in a message on the company's website.